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A bibliometric
Quo vadis, ethnic analysis
entrepreneurship? A bibliometric
analysis of ethnic
entrepreneurship in
growing markets Received 5 April 2020
Revised 25 May 2020
25 June 2020
Nurul Indarti and Naya Hapsari Accepted 30 June 2020
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business,
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Andy Susilo Lukito-Budi
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta,
Indonesia and Faculty of Economics and Business, Atma Jaya Catholic University
of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia, and
Risa Virgosita
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah
Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to investigate the trends in existing studies in the field of ethnic
entrepreneurship in the context of growing markets in terms of definitions, theories, themes, methodologies
and settings.
Design/methodology/approach – This study used bibliometric analysis and used Publish or Perish
software with Google Scholar as the database. A total of 183 articles published in 122 journals from 1988 to
2018 were selected. This study used systematic data to reveal trends in growing markets and qualitative
inductive analysis to define relevant themes within the topic.
Findings – The results show that ethnic entrepreneurship is defined as involving immigrants from developing
countries. From a theoretical point of view, socio-cultural theories, socio-economic theories and combinations of
both have been used to explain the phenomenon. Six research themes have been developed indicating potential
explorative and exploitative research themes. This study identified the dominance of the qualitative approach in
ethnic entrepreneurship research and found that the typical research subjects are Asian immigrants, especially
Chinese, in developed countries. The articles reviewed were mainly conducted in developed countries (68.85%)
and a lesser portion in developing countries (13.66%), particularly Asian countries.
Practical implications – This study provides future directions for research on ethnic entrepreneurship,
such as gender studies of ethnic entrepreneurs and factors affecting the opening of new businesses in new
locations.

This study was funded by the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada,
Indonesia, through the Department Research Grant 2018. The authors would also acknowledge the
Journal of Entrepreneurship in
School of Business, University of Agder, Norway and the Royal Embassy of Norway in Jakarta, Emerging Economies
Indonesia, for the support in the development of this paper through the In Search of Balance project © Emerald Publishing Limited
2053-4604
within PACER Program. DOI 10.1108/JEEE-04-2020-0080
JEEE Originality/value – This study reveals trends in the ethnic entrepreneurship field based on the country in
which the study was conducted, the definition of ethnic entrepreneurship, the theories, the research themes,
the methodologies, the research setting and the ethnicity studied. It also used the framework of input–
process–output to establish a generic road map of the ethnic entrepreneurship research area.
Keywords Emerging market, Bibliometric analysis, Immigrant entrepreneurship,
Ethnic entrepreneurship, Growing markets
Paper type Literature review

Introduction
Studies in ethnic entrepreneurship have gained great attention among academics,
practitioners and policymakers (Aliaga-Isla and Rialp, 2013; Ilhan-Nas et al., 2011). The
urgency of this topic arises as ethnic entrepreneurship has been acclaimed as a means to
secure the economic state of the ethnic group members who have usually been categorized
as immigrants or ethnic minorities in their host countries (Chaganti and Greene, 2002;
Morris, 2010). Ethnic entrepreneurship, which is often co-mingled with immigrant
entrepreneurship, is argued for as an ideal option for reducing unemployment rates in a
specific country, as well as to help underprivileged groups to achieve upward socio-
economic mobility (Kloosterman, 2003).
Ethnic entrepreneurship is essentially defined as business ownership among
immigrants, ethnic group members or both (Valdez, 2008, p. 959). Previous studies have
examined the definitions, roles and characteristics of ethnic groups in entrepreneurship
(Assudani, 2009; Cederberg and Villares-Varela, 2019; Chaganti and Greene, 2002; Drori
et al., 2009; Szkudlarek and Wu, 2018). Ethnic entrepreneurs have usually migrated from
less-developed countries to more developed countries, particularly in attractive demographic
regions in cities (Waldinger, 1989). Immigrants from less-developed countries have different
human, social and economic capitals from the indigenous populations, which equip them in
creating specific market opportunities in the host country (Cruz et al., 2018; Kloosterman and
Rath, 2001). However, ethnic entrepreneurs also target developing countries for many other
reasons; for instance, access to business opportunities (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990) and
kinship ties with kin groups whose businesses have already been established (Boyd, 1989).
Furthermore, based on a systematic review conducted by Aliaga-Isla and Rialp (2013), there
has been a shift in immigration in that individuals from developed countries are moving to
emerging countries because of financial crises. Thus, researching ethnic entrepreneurship in
this context presents a promising research avenue (Aliaga-Isla and Rialp, 2013).
Studies of ethnic entrepreneurship in emerging and developing markets are important
because ethnic entrepreneurs contribute to the economic growth of the countries where they
reside (Johnson et al., 2007). This importance is underlined by the increasing studies of
ethnic entrepreneurship that focus on emerging markets (Lin, 2010; Nkongolo-Bakenda and
Chrysostome, 2013; Riddle and Brinkerhoff, 2011; Vaaler, 2011). Furthermore, emerging
markets have unique institutional environments characterized by institutional voids, the
considerable importance of informal institutions, frequent institutional transitions and
greater institutional pressure from local governments, all of which are less visible in
developed markets (Rottig, 2016). These characterized environment items provide
interesting settings for the investigation of the ethnic entrepreneurship phenomenon in
attempts to generalize or modify existing theories (Alon and Rottig, 2013). Therefore, this
systematic review was conducted to fill the academic gap, following up on the call by
Aliaga-Isla and Rialp (2013) for research on ethnic entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
However, in this study, the term “growing markets” is used to refer to the summation of
developing and emerging markets. The segregation is because of the definition about both A bibliometric
markets (i.e. developing represents developing countries and emerging represents semi- analysis
developed countries). While both terms share similar characteristics (Estrin et al., 2019;
Oman et al., 2014), the terms reflect slight differences in the establishment of the countries or
markets (EDT, 2012).
Estrin et al. (2019) indirectly stated emerging as “dynamic development in economies for
several countries in South East Asia [. . .]” (p. 2). They also differentiated emerging markets
and developed markets to take account of the specific characteristics that appear in the
entrepreneurship in emerging markets (i.e. the age of the business, gender dominance,
education and some personal traits, such as occupational choice and social capital). This
paper follows the statement from Oman et al. (2003) that the implementation of corporate
governance (CG) in developing countries is instrumental yet ignored. They noted that the
transition of CG from developing countries to emerging countries has marked the success in
the long run in developing countries as well as in developed countries. Based on this, there
are three levels of countries with regard to the implementation of CG: developing countries,
where CG implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is poor and often
ignored; emerging countries, where CG is in the early stages of implementation; and
developed countries, where CG is well established. In the present paper, it is appropriate to
use both developing and emerging markets because of the relatively similar characteristics
of entrepreneurship in both market types.
The goal of the current study was to review the extant literature on ethnic
entrepreneurship in growing markets. Thus, the following research questions were
established:

RQ1. What research has been done in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship in the context
of growing markets, in terms of the definitions, theories, research themes, research
methodologies and settings?
RQ2. What are the future research agendas in the ethnic entrepreneurship field?
A literature review paper reflects the knowledge advancement in the field of study and
offers a reference point that leads to conceptualization (or reconceptualization in the case of
existing phenomena) and new understanding (Rocco and Plakhotnik, 2009). The present
literature review paper aims to synthesize and review current literature in the field of ethnic
entrepreneurship with special reference to growing markets by focusing on definitions,
theories, themes, research methodology and research settings. The paper also identifies
research themes using an interpretative approach to map trending topics in the field to
represent clearly the direction(s) of research in the field. To the authors’ knowledge, this is
the first systematic review of ethnic entrepreneurship literature focused on growing
markets. It contributes to the literature of ethnic entrepreneurship by providing an
understanding of previous findings on ethnic entrepreneurship research in the context of
growing markets and as a starting point for future research avenues.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the methodology used to conduct
the systematic review with bibliometric analysis, including the steps in searching the
articles by using Publish or Perish (PoP) software and the Google Scholar (GS) database.
Section 3 presents the clustering results and a detailed discussion to answer the research
questions, using the form of systematic literature review. Finally, the conclusions,
limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed in Sections 4 and 5,
respectively.
JEEE Methodology
The study applied a systematic review to produce a scientific summary of the studies
conducted in the area of ethnic entrepreneurship. The nature of the study of this topic is a
theoretical one concerned with technical procedures. It is categorized as a bibliography
study because it analyzes already published studies on the subject (Creswell, 2017). The
main objectives of the study were exploratory and descriptive, seeking specific information
on what is being studied (Ferenhof et al., 2014).
Because of the lack of articles in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship in growing markets,
we set three flexible criteria. The first criterion was keywords. As the focal variable of this
study was “ethnic entrepreneurship,” and this term is usually associated with “immigrant
entrepreneurship,” both terms were used as keywords. In addition, the terms “emerging
markets” and “developing countries,” which reflect the term growing markets, were also
used to search relevant articles in electronic databases. Those four keywords were used to
ensure that the selected articles addressed the significant themes and the study objective.
The second criterion was the type of article. Only peer-reviewed journal articles were
selected, because this type of article usually contains a field’s most recent theories and
findings, as well as representing the most advanced level of research (Mustak et al., 2013).
Thus, conference proceedings, unpublished theses and other types of articles were excluded
from the list. The peer-reviewed articles were then selected for inclusion by reading the titles
and abstracts. In essence, every article that discussed entrepreneurship related to ethnicity
in developing countries or emerging markets was included in the review. The third criterion
was the multidisciplinary fields of the articles. Thus, the possibility of including articles
from other fields of social sciences was expanded to enhance the diversity of perspectives.
In terms of language and publication outlets, three criteria were defined for selecting the
peer-reviewed articles included in this analysis. First, only articles presented in English and
published in reputable international journals (mainly based on Scopus index rankings Q1–
Q4) were included. Second, for articles published in journals not listed in the Scopus index,
the articles were read thoroughly to identify and assess the relevance of the content. Third,
the researchers also considered articles from non-indexed journals as long as they were not
listed in Beall’s list of predatory journals (beallslist.weebly.com). In the selection process,
two authors were responsible for identifying and assessing the quality of the journals, and
the other two were responsible for re-validating the results.
Bibliometric analysis is usually used in the scientific disciplines and focuses on
representing the quantitative side of research performance (Heersmink et al., 2011; Raan,
2003). However, the present review used both quantitative and qualitative analysis, as
conducted by Apriliyanti and Alon (2017). Our study followed the protocol for bibliometric
analysis method introduced by Fahimnia et al. (2015). The protocol consists of five steps,
including:
(1) defining research keywords;
(2) obtaining initial search results;
(3) refining the search results;
(4) compiling the initial data; and
(5) analyzing the data.

To obtain more comprehensive results for analysis, an Excel workbook was created to
dissect and code the content of the objectives, theoretical frameworks and methodologies of
the selected articles. The summary of the process is presented in Figure 1. All steps are
explained in detail in the following sub-sections.
 Beginning A bibliometric
analysis
1) Defining search keywords:
1: “ethnic entrepreneurship” and “emerging markets”
2: “ethnic entrepreneurship” and “developing countries”
3: “immigrant entrepreneurship” and “emerging markets”
4: “immigrant entrepreneurship” and “developing markets”

2) Obtaining the initial result

Conference proceedings Unfavourable

(do not fit criteria)
Working papers
Excluded
Book/Book Chapters

Articles from
Journals

3) Refining of the search results

(do not fit criteria)

Unfavourable
Classify the articles based Select articles from Re-review articles from
on the rank of journals from reputable peer-reviewed unranked journals
ScimagoJR website journals (Q1-Q4)

Final selection Re-scrutiny

4) Compiling the initial data statistics

Extracting the necessary information from the selected articles, such as,
publication journal, year of publication, publisher, etc.

5) Analyzing the data

Data aggregation Definition, theories/perspectives,
research themes, methodology, setting
Data interpretation (RQ#1)
Future research agenda (RQ #2)
Figure 1.
Logical flow chart of
Final the protocol of
Result/Discussion bibliometric analysis

Defining search keywords

The first step undertaken was to search the articles with topics relevant to this study
objective. For reasons of accessibility, PoP software version 7 and GS were used to collect
the data. The PoP software was from Tarma Software Research Pty Ltd., Melbourne
(Bensman, 2011). To ensure that all relevant articles were covered in this stage, using the
four keywords, the researchers used two search processes, as follows. The first search
process used four word combinations (see Figure 1) with the term “ethnic entrepreneurship”
in the title. The second search process included the term “immigrant entrepreneurship” in
the title with the four combinations. This was intended to ensure that the selected articles
addressed the relevant themes and the study topic, that is, ethnic entrepreneurship in
JEEE growing markets. Other aspects, such as years of publication, were not set in the search
because of the limited number of extant articles.

Obtaining the initial search results

Using all the keywords, a previous search process was attempted on the Web of Science
platform, but this resulted in too few articles (fewer than 30), and the articles found were
already included in the GS database. Thus, GS was chosen as the database because, in
addition to its accessibility, it provided a larger number of articles for analysis. After
searching the keywords, a total of 498 articles from the GS database were obtained in the
initial phase, with a publication period ranging from 1988 to 2018. The choice of 1988 as a
starting point was based on several previous bibliometric studies conducted between 1980
and 1990 (Akin et al., 2017; Kwiecin ski and Matusz-Protasiewicz, 2017; Lopez-Fernandez
et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2013). In this study, the year 1988 was the earliest article found in GS
using the set criteria. The articles were then classified based on the source type, such as
journals, books and proceedings, as summarized in Table 1.

Refining the search results

Based on the initial search, a total of 498 articles published over 31 years (1988–2019) were
obtained. From those results, a total of 183 articles met the second criterion (peer-reviewed
journal articles), and 315 articles from other sources were excluded. Out of 183 articles, 108
articles were from the first set of keywords and 75 articles were from the second set of
keywords. Tables 2 and 3 outline the details of the refinement process for each set of
keywords. The first set of keywords (see Table 2) produced an initial result of 253 articles or
a decrease of 57.3% (253 to 108 articles). After the refinement process, overall citations
declined from 5,811 to 4,361 (a decrease of 24.9%). Meanwhile, the second set of keywords
(see Table 3) produced an initial result of 268 articles, a decrease of 72.1% (268 to 75 articles).
After the refinement process, overall citations declined from 4,549 to 2,431, a decrease of
53.4%. When the results were collected, each paper was collectively discussed and selected
based on its relevance to the topic by reading the abstract and the objective of the paper. If
there were any competing arguments, the researchers examined the paper for more detailed
information and decided whether to include it based on that reading. Overall, the baseline
papers used for this study are 183 papers.

No. Source No. of articles

1. Journal*
Q1 journal 73
Q2 journal 46
Q3 journal 35
Q4 journal 4
No Rank journal 25
Unidentified/Repeated/Unable to access/Non-English 47
2. Books/Book chapter/Report/Review 110
3. Conference proceedings 27
4. Working paper/Thesis 88
5. Unidentified/Citation only/Rejected website 43
Table 1. Total 498
Number of articles
based on the source Note: *Ranked based on ScimagoJR list
 Tables 2 and 3 summarize the metrics of the articles obtained from the first and second A bibliometric
search process, respectively. The metrics information includes the citations per year and the analysis
Hirsch index (h-index) scores of the articles. After the refinement, the latest articles to be
analyzed are from 2018 (articles published in 2019 are excluded because they do not meet the
criteria). Of 183 articles, 158 articles were published in reputable journals (Q1–Q4), based on
the SCImago Journal and Country Rank website. The remainder (25) were published in peer-
reviewed journals outside of the scope of SCImago, but the content fulfilled the criteria and
was relevant to the Asian context; for instance, The China Quarterly. These findings
indicate that in ethnic entrepreneurship, especially in the context of growing markets, other
publication types aside from peer-reviewed journals (for example, books/book chapters,
reports and conference proceedings) have a considerable impact on citations.

Compiling the initial data statistics

The results of the refined search were saved in Excel format containing all important
information related to the statistics of the paper, including title, author, year of publication

Metrics Initial search Refined search

Query Journal, title ethnic entrepreneurship, Journal, title ethnic entrepreneurship,

four combinations (Figure 1) four combinations (Figure 1)
Source Google Scholar Google Scholar
Years 1989–2018 1989–2018
Papers 253 108
Citations 5,811 4,361
Cites_Year 200.38 150.38
Cites_Paper 22.97 40.38 Table 2.
Authors_Paper 1.81/1.0/1 1.86
Comparison metrics
Age_weighted citation rate 530.06; 362.66/author 394.04; 264.80/author
h_index 40 34 from the first
g_index 73 65 searching process of
PoP hI norm 30 27 “ethnic
PoP hI annual 1.03 0.93 entrepreneurship”

Metrics Initial search Refined search

Query Journal, title immigrant Journal, title immigrant

entrepreneurship, four entrepreneurship, four
combinations (Figure 1) combinations (Figure 1)
Source Google Scholar Google Scholar
Years 1988–2019 1989–2018
Papers 268 75
Citations 4,549 2,431
Cites_Year 146.74 78.42
Cites_Paper 16.97 32.41 Table 3.
Authors_Paper 1.77/1.0/1 1.92/2.0/2
Comparison metrics
Age_weighted citation rate 648.83; 358.30/author 298.91; 169.70/author
h_index 32 23 from the second
g_index 64 48 searching process
PoP hI norm 29 20 “immigrant
PoP hI annual 0.94 0.65 entrepreneurship”
JEEE and journal specification (name of the journal, tier and publisher). Information about the
theories, methodologies, ethnicity and countries of study was also included. Figure 2
presents the distribution of published articles on ethnic entrepreneurship per year.
The initial results indicate that the trend of ethnic entrepreneurship studies was
somewhat volatile but tended to increase over the past three decades. In the 90s, ethnic

20
19 19
18 18
Number of Publicaons

16
14 14 14
12
10 10 10
8 8
7 7 7
6 6
5 5 5
4 4 4
3 3
Figure 2. 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1
Number of 0
publications per year 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
(1988–2019)
Years

Others (ProQuest, Oxford University Press,… 54

Elsevier 4
Springer 6
JSTOR 5
Inderscience Publishers 13
Wiley-Blackwell 17
SAGE Publishing 23
Figure 3. Emerald Group Publishing 25
Publishers of Routledge-Taylor & Francis Group 36
reviewed articles
0 20 40 60

Asian & Pacific Migration Journal (Q2) 4

International Small Business Journal (Q1) 4

International Business Review (Q1) 4

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

5
Figure 4. (Q3)
Top seven journals International Journal Entrepreneurship and
6
Small Business (Q2)
that published the Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
8
highest number of (Q1)
articles on the International Journal of Entrepreneurial
8
Behavior & Research (Q1)
selected topic
0 5 10
entrepreneurship studies had not been conducted extensively, with only one article A bibliometric
published per year on average. The number of published articles increased significantly in analysis
the 2000s until recently, with the most articles being published in 2010 and 2013.
In terms of publication source, the 183 reviewed articles were published in 122 journals
from various reputable publishers, such as Routledge, Emerald, SAGE and Wiley
(see Figure 3). Of the 122 journals, 102 are top-tier journals (Q1–Q4) according to the
SCImago Journal Rank. As presented in Figure 4, the International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research (Q1) and Entrepreneurship and Regional
Development (Q1) published the most articles on ethnic or immigrant entrepreneurship
topics, with eight articles published by both journals. The second- and third-highest number
of articles were published by the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small
Business (six articles) and the Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (five articles). The
complete list of journals is presented in Appendix 1.

Analyzing the data

A systematic review method was used to describe and summarize the definitions, theories,
themes, methodologies and research settings of each article to answer the research
questions. In addition, interpretive and organic approaches were used to identify the
research themes of each article to gain deeper and richer context meanings, as suggested by
Apriliyanti and Alon (2017). This kind of approach, to the best of the authors’ knowledge,
offers a novel way of teasing out meaning in studies from the topic. To ensure objectivity in
the analysis, the process was performed and verified by four authors. Two authors were
responsible for conducting the data retrieval. The third author checked the data and
performed the analysis. The fourth author rechecked the final results. During the checking
process, all four authors discussed the results in several iterative processes as suggested for
the interpretative data process (Miles and Huberman, 1994, p. 85). The division of
responsibilities was based on distinctive competencies among the researchers. For example,
the fourth author had the most knowledge of the topic, whereas the third author had
competence in data analysis management. The data retrieval was undertaken by two
authors, who familiarized themselves with the supporting software. In the analysis, all the
articles were identified by their topics and keywords and were clustered into various
research themes using the framework of input–process–output (IPO) from Waring (1996).
This result clearly marked the differences between the current bibliometric study and the
previous studies, which mainly used systematic techniques from the concept of social
networking to form their research clusters/themes (Akin et al., 2017; Cruz et al., 2018;
Ganzaroli et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2013).

Definitions of ethnic entrepreneurship

Based on 183 articles reviewed in this study, several definitions used by researchers to
define ethnic entrepreneurs and ethnic entrepreneurship were identified. The term
“entrepreneur” refers to a person or group, whereas the term “entrepreneurship” refers to the
process. The definitions are varied based on the context or aspect they focused on. The most
common definition used to define an ethnic entrepreneur is the one adopted by Aldrich and
Waldinger (1990): “a group of people that are tied to a common cultural heritage or origin
who run a business as owners or operators” (p. 112). Meanwhile, based on several research
papers, ethnic entrepreneurship is commonly defined as value-creating business activities
performed by a group whose members have a common cultural heritage or origin and are
known to people not in the group as having such attributes (Aldrich and Waldinger, 1990;
Drori et al., 2009).
 JEEE

of ethnic
Table 4.

entrepreneurs
Various definitions
Author(s) Specific term(s) used Definition Emphasized aspect(s)

Evans (1989) Immigrant The immigrant group acts as an economic niche for a small business, Diversity
entrepreneurs and how it survived is defined by human capital matters and
characteristics of the immigrant group, such as the size of ethnic
market and size of the linguistically isolated labor force
Bonacich (1973) Ethnic entrepreneurs Group of people who strive for upward mobility within a competitive Economy
framework and take care of their social welfare by opening a
business
Li (1993) Ethnic enterprise A business in which an ethnic group can prosper, typically located in Chinese business
a limited number of industries such as retailing food services and
other personal services
van Delft et al. (2000) Ethnic Business activities, mainly of small or medium size, executed by Economy
entrepreneurship foreign migrants with the main aim of covering the socio-economic
needs of immigrants of various ethnic or socio-cultural classes
Baycan-Levent et al. Ethnic entrepreneurs; Special groups of entrepreneurs, ethnic and female, who share Gender
(2006) female entrepreneurs common characteristics, such as needs to improve weak socio-
economic position and the discrimination they usually face in society
Koning and Verver Chinese Ethnic or immigrant entrepreneurship consists of not only the first Hereditary
(2013) entrepreneurs generation that “experiences” the adaptation challenges during the
migration process, but there are also the second and third
generations that had to be embedded in various aspects of a minority
business inherited from their predecessor
Somashekhar (2018) African-American A business owned and operated by entrepreneurs who share an Black-owned businesses
entrepreneurs ethnic identity and are often faced by the unique disadvantage of
formal residential segregation that forces them to coexist in the same
neighborhoods
 In general, other definitions by other authors appear to be similar. Some authors A bibliometric
modified the notion of ethnic entrepreneurs by adding the specific context of the study (see analysis
Table 4). For example, the earliest article reviewed in this study, written by Evans (1989),
focused on describing diversity as an aspect that influences the sustainability of businesses
operated by immigrants. Thus, he formulated ecological factors that encourage (or hinder)
immigrants in setting up their businesses. Another definition of ethnic entrepreneurship
was proposed by Baycan-Levent et al. (2006) in studying gender. They added the
characteristics of female entrepreneurs, particularly the issue of discrimination, to define the
term ethnic entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, Koning and Verver (2013) added the patrimonial
aspect in understanding ethnic entrepreneurship, as they focused on analyzing how Chinese
entrepreneurs passed their businesses on from generation to generation.
The common characteristics of ethnic entrepreneurs are their immigrant status, often
with distinctive languages and customs, engaged in formal, informal or illegal self-
employment and/or business in the adopted country (Drori et al., 2009). Because one of the
characteristics often associated with ethnic entrepreneurs is being an immigrant, it is
common for researchers to use the term immigrant entrepreneurship as another term for
ethnic entrepreneurship (Collins, 2003; Evans, 1989; Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Tavassoli
and Trippl, 2019). In short, ethnic entrepreneurs are defined as a group of people bound by a
common cultural heritage who move from their home countries to destination countries, as
immigrants, opening businesses there to improve their social and economic well-being.

Theories or perspectives used in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship

Many studies have explored theories and fundamental factors that influence the
development of ethnic businesses. The literature review of 183 articles showed that the
theories and perspectives used in ethnic entrepreneurship studies are rooted in classical
literature in the social, cultural and economic fields that are often associated with
immigration studies. Previous studies conducted by Ibrahim and Galt (2003, 2011) explained
the complementary roles of cultural and economic approaches in shaping the tendency of
ethnic groups to create businesses. Both studies argued that cultural argument has a role in
representing non-economic factors in entrepreneurship. Cultural factors, just as important as
economic factors, are widely recognized in the old institutionalist approach as the causal
factor behind the business initiation and self-employment of certain ethnic groups (Ibrahim
and Galt, 2003, 2011).
In this study, the popular theories or approaches used to study ethnic entrepreneurship
are classified into three categories, namely:
(1) the socio-cultural field;
(2) the socio-economic field; and
(3) the combination of socio-cultural and economics fields.

The first category, the socio-cultural field, consists of six theories and approaches: the
culturalist approach, social learning theory (Bandura, 1978), the ethnic tourism perspective
(Wood, 1984), entrepreneurial familism (Wong, 1993), the organizational ecology perspective
(Singh and Lumsden, 1990) and the interactionist perspective (Tsui-Auch, 2005). This group
of theories draws on social and cultural issues to explain how an ethnic group initiates and
operates a business. The socio-cultural context of human society represents the need to
fulfill the collective or ecological aspects of human life, including social contacts, norms and
values, ideals, cultural identity and even coping with the discrimination usually faced by
minorities (Chiesura and de Groot, 2003; Kim et al., 2011). In entrepreneurship, the cultural
JEEE approach has an unavoidable role as ethnic minority businesses are often confined in tight
social networks in which ethnic businesses deal with goods that are mainly consumed by co-
ethnic customers (Ibrahim and Galt, 2003).
One of the theories that represents the socio-cultural perspective in ethnic
entrepreneurship studies is social learning theory, which was introduced by Bandura (1978).
Social learning theory holds that people are able to acquire their patterns of behavior by
observing and imitating the behavior of others. This explanation depicts the intention of
ethnic group members to open a business based on the behavior of other members in the
group. This theory helps to explain the presence of environmental factors such as “role
models” that act as the stimulus for ethnic group members to decide on being entrepreneurs
as a career choice. For example, a study by Butler and Herring (1991) found that children
who are exposed to entrepreneurial behavior from their parents are likely to pursue the same
path. This explanation is reasonable, especially if associated with the hereditary aspect of
ethnic family businesses (Adendorff and Halkias, 2014; Koning and Verver, 2013), and helps
to elucidate another socio-cultural theory, specifically entrepreneurial familism in Chinese
entrepreneurship, as proposed by Wong (1993).
The second category is the socio-economic field, which represents theories and
perspectives that focus on discussing how the economic aspect matters to ethnic groups in
the intention to build a business. Theories that are included in this category are the orthodox
economic perspective or old institutionalist economics, the middleman minorities
perspective (Bonacich, 1973), the ethnic enclaves perspective (Wilson and Martin, 1982), the
laws of migration perspective or push–pull migration laws (Dorigo and Tobler, 1983;
Ravenstein, 1885), the bootstrap capitalism perspective (Basu and Werbner, 2001) and the
self-employment perspective (Blanchflower, 2004). These theories stress that one of the main
reasons ethnic groups start businesses is the need to improve their economic status despite
their limited capital and the discrimination they face. This idea is clearly defined especially
in push–pull migration laws (Dorigo and Tobler, 1983) that point out the need to achieve a
better economic condition and opportunities by moving to other countries. Furthermore, the
economic reason is also described in bootstrap capitalism theory (Basu and Werbner, 2001),
which explains how ethnic minorities build up their businesses with limited capital and
determine their economic position by embedding themselves in the environment.
In the socio-economics category, there are also two primary classic perspectives in the
literature on ethnic entrepreneurship, namely, the middleman minorities perspective
(Bonacich, 1973) and the ethnic enclaves perspective (Wilson and Martin, 1982). The
perspectives complement each other in explaining how ethnic businesses survive and
prosper despite their minority status and the discrimination they encounter in the host
country. The middleman minorities perspective introduces the idea that the economic status
of ethnic minorities is often in the middle position, and, to survive in daily life and blend
with society, they build businesses in the economic system of the host country (Assudani,
2009; Bonacich, 1973). The ethnic enclave perspective adds the explanation that ethnic
minority businesses are often located in an area with a certain proximity to other similar
businesses (Wilson and Martin, 1982).
Finally, this study also found that some theories/perspectives combine social, cultural
and economic factors in explaining ethnic entrepreneurship. These theories are included in
the socio-cultural and economics group. Six theories were identified in this category, namely,
the interactive model of ethnic business development (Waldinger et al., 1990), the blocked
mobility perspective (Gold and Kibria, 1993), (ethnic) the social capital perspective (Sanders
and Nee, 1996; Woolcock and Narayan, 2000), (mixed) embeddedness in entrepreneurship
(Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Kloosterman et al., 1999; Uzzi, 1997), female entrepreneurship/
 A bibliometric
Field Theoretical approach/perspective and description
analysis
Socio-cultural Culturalist perspective from classic sociological literature
Ethnic minority businesses often confined in tight social networks, in which ethnic
business transacts in goods mainly consumed by co-ethnic customers. Cultural
factors play an important role for ethnic entrepreneurs to maintain their relationship
with co-ethnic customers (Ibrahim and Galt, 2003, 2011)
Social learning perspective by Bandura (1978)
People are able to control their own behavior to some degree, and the patterns of
behavior of an individual are acquired and regulated by the interplay of self-
generated and other sources of influences (observing and imitating others)
Ethnic tourism perspective by Wood (1984)
How ethnicity and culture play as tourist attractions
Chinese entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial familism by Wong (1993)
The essence of Chinese economic organization is familism
Organizational ecology perspective by Singh and Lumsden (1990)
Investigating how social conditions, such as population dynamics, density
dependence, resource partitioning and others influence the processes of
organizational foundings, mortality and change
Interactionist perspective (Tsui-auch, 2005)
A synthesis of the structuralist and culturalist perspectives which emphasize the
interaction between the opportunity structure in the country of residence and the
ethnic resource of an immigrant group
Color-blind racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2003)
A “new” form of racism, characterized by, but not limited to, covert racial discourse
and practices
Socio-economics Orthodox economic perspective/old institutionalist economics by neoclassical
economists
The intention to become an entrepreneur is influenced by preferences in fulfilling
economic needs; for example, difference expected from present value of earnings
from building their own business or self-employment compared with the expected
present value of wages from being an employee (Ibrahim and Galt, 2003, 2011)
Laws of migration perspective by Ravenstein (1885)
This perspective follows the push–pull migration laws (Dorigo and Tobler, 1983).
Immigration as a product of push factors in the home country and pull factors in the
receiving country
Middleman minorities perspective by Bonacich (1973)
Immigrants or ethnic minorities in the host country mostly occupy an intermediate
rather than a low position in terms of their economic status. This leads them to
develop enterprises that are located in the middle of the economic system of the host
country such as broker and labor contractor, despite the discrimination and hostility
faced as they mingle in society
Ethnic enclaves perspective (Vij and Bedi) (Wilson and Martin, 1982)
A model of economy that is composed of clusters of small businesses, usually
minority-owned businesses. Departing from an idea similar to the middleman
minorities perspective, this perspective emphasizes the geographical proximity of
the enterprise locations
Bootstrap capitalism perspective (Basu and Werbner, 2001)
Capitalism starting from the bottom upwards. The condition arises when many Table 5.
ethnic group immigrants, who had to overcome extreme discrimination, have to Perspectives/
establish, sustain and develop businesses in a low capital and low knowledge
approaches in the
environment
field of ethnic
(continued) entrepreneurship

gender-based differences (Baycan-Levent et al., 2003, 2006) and ethnic diversity focused on
JEEE
Field Theoretical approach/perspective and description

Self-employment by Blanchflower (2004, 2000)

For an individual, self-employment presents an opportunity to set his or her own
working schedule. If they do it properly, they will have a real chance of obtaining a
good economic status. Meanwhile, for governments, self-employment is seen as a
route out of poverty and disadvantage because self-employment will help promote
invention and innovation to create new job opportunities
Socio-cultural and Interactive model of ethnic business development by Waldinger et al. (1990)
economics A theoretical model representing the three main approaches of ethnic entrepreneurial
success: “group characteristics,” or predisposing factors and resource mobilization
that immigrants bring to their businesses; “opportunity structures,” including
market conditions and access to ownership; and “ethnic strategies,” emphasizing the
study of the interaction between “group characteristics” and “opportunity
structures” (Teixeira, 1998)
Blocked mobility perspective (Basu and Goswami, 1999; Gold and Kibria, 1993)
Ethnic groups often face various kinds of disadvantages in the labor market; for
example, racial discrimination, negative events, low education and qualifications,
language barrier and others. The difficulties they face while adapting to society
encourage them to concentrate their entrepreneurial activities on marginal niches in
the economy, which helps the ethnic groups to increase their social mobility
(Ethnic) Social capital perspective (Sanders and Nee, 1996; Woolcock and Narayan,
2000)
Focusing on the sources rather than the consequences of social capital, permitting
the incorporation of different dimensions of social capital and presenting the
community rather than individuals as the primary unit of analysis. In ethnic
entrepreneurship, network identity, family and community can be used as social
capital to acquire business information and market opportunities that facilitate
business start-ups
(Mixed) Embeddedness in entrepreneurship (Kloosterman and Rath, 2001; Robert
Kloosterman et al., 1999; Uzzi, 1997)
The socio-economic position of immigrant entrepreneurs can only properly be
understood by analyzing not only their social networks but also their embeddedness
in the socio-economic and politico-institutional environment of the country of
settlement
Female entrepreneurship/gender-based differences (Baycan-Levent et al., 2003, 2006)
Special groups of entrepreneurs, ethnic female entrepreneurs, who share common
characteristics, such as their weak socio-economic position and the discrimination
they usually face in society
Ethnic diversity: diversity competitiveness link by Smallbone et al. (2010)
There are seven potential diversity competitiveness aspects that can contribute to
business competitiveness through a variety of causal mechanisms, which may in
some cases interact with each other: ethnic diversity, creativity and competitiveness;
ethnic diversity, diaspora networks and competitiveness; linguistic diversity and
competitiveness; business start-up, business development and competitiveness;
supplier diversity and competitiveness; workforce diversity and competitiveness;
Table 5. diversity as an asset to attract foreign direct investment, customers and visitors

diversity competitiveness (Smallbone et al., 2010). Theories in this category explain that the
intention of ethnic groups in initiating a business is to survive in society (by increasing their
social mobility) and to achieve better economic conditions.
A more detailed description of each theory used in ethnic entrepreneurship
studies is summarized in Table 5. This study also provides an analysis of 25 selected
Research themes # Papers Research themes # Papers

Entrepreneurship engagement and establishment 61 Entrepreneurship impact 28

Engagement of entrepreneur business 19 Economic 16
Business strategy 11 Ethnic-based politics and policy 3
New entrepreneur 10 Employment creation 2
Historical overview 5 Social development and integration 2
Local and global external environment 4 Various non-economic factors 2
Agency in entrepreneurship 2 Education promotion 1
Entrepreneur experience 2 Employee’s skill 1
Ethical ambiguity in ethnic entrepreneurship business 2 Value creation 1
Structure and process 2 Individual factors 14
Adoption of entrepreneurial and organizational practices 1 Values and beliefs 3
Informal and illegal work issues 1 Independence 2
Language fluency barrier 1 Motivation 2
Succession strategy 1 Self-adaptation and acculturation 2

External factors 51 Leadership role and character 2

Attachment: family, group and community support 12 Opportunity availability 1
Ties: cultural 11 Opportunity availability (female) 1
Support from external: government, corporate social responsibility, supporting 8 Preference to risk level 1
policy
Non-people factors: demographic and geographic spatial 5 Gender/female studies 11
Ties: religion 4 Engagement of entrepreneur business (female related) 5
Barriers and challenges 4 New entrepreneur (female related) 2
Ties: ethnicity 2 Barriers and challenges (female related) 2
Ties: network 2 Leadership role and character (female related) 1
Character: group and community 1 Gender comparison study 1
Diversity level 1
Settlement: migration and settlement 1

Theoretical and methodological issues 28

Theoretical development 16
Definition and classification 9
Methodology 3

Notes: The base line is 183 papers. The gender study has redundancy with other topics

Table 6.
A bibliometric

themes
analysis

Clusters of research
JEEE articles (out of the 183 reviewed in this study) with more than 50 citations based on
the theories and perspectives used in the ethnic entrepreneurship field (see
Appendix 2).

Research themes in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship

The current study found that various research areas were clustered into five research
themes (see Table 6), namely:
(1) entrepreneurship engagement and establishment (61 papers) covering many
aspects related to the development and growth of the enterprises;
(2) external factors (51 papers) reflecting various factors affecting the enterprise from
the outside environment, both directly and indirectly;
(3) theoretical and methodological issues (28 papers) discussing the operational
definitions of the construct and instrument development;
(4) entrepreneurship impacts (28 articles), including economics and non-economic
impacts, for business, society and country; and
(5) individual factors (14 articles) focusing on individual characteristics and behaviors
toward the business, such as values, beliefs, motivations and risk preferences.

In addition to the five research themes, the study also grouped 11 papers into a gender/female
theme focusing on engagement, development and barriers in businesses run by female
entrepreneurs. Compared with other entrepreneurship study topics, female entrepreneurs are
becoming interesting and relevant topics of study in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship. For
example, studies by Baycan-Levent et al. (2003) and Chreim et al. (2018) addressed the
entrepreneurship engagement and establishment for a new business set up by female
Turkish immigrants in Amsterdam. Similar studies have also been conducted in many
locations, such as New Zealand (Pio, 2007), North Carolina (Wang and Morrell, 2015), Berlin
(Lidola, 2014), Canada (Maitra, 2013) and The Netherlands (Verduijn and Essers, 2013). Other
studies have focused on barriers and challenges for female entrepreneurs in Japan (Billore
et al., 2010), the availability of opportunities for female entrepreneurs (Billore, 2011) and
leadership models for female entrepreneurs (Mauro et al., 2017).

Figure 5.
Research themes
 To provide a comprehensive picture of the current research themes in the field of ethnic A bibliometric
entrepreneurship, the six research themes summarized in Table 6 were framed using the analysis
IPO framework (see Figure 5). The IPO approach is used as part of a system thinking model
to illustrate the theme’s position within the entrepreneurship process (Waring, 1996). The
IPO model consists of three main blocks (input, process and output) and two additional
blocks (foundation improvement and contemporary issues). The input block refers to
individual and external factors that can be considered the antecedents of the
entrepreneurship process. With regard to the individual factors, the study found that many
studies on ethnic entrepreneurship have focused mainly on the individual factors, which
contributed to a 57% rate of convergence (8/14; for detail explanation, see notes in Figure 5).
This indicates that many different topics related to individual factors have been discussed.
Moreover, related topics in the individual theme consist of values and beliefs that influence
the immigrant entrepreneur (Cruz et al., 2018; Li, 2007; Robertson and Grant, 2016), whereas
the values shared by individual immigrants were further discussed as motivation studies
(Ramadani et al., 2014; Shinnar and Zamantılı Nayır, 2019). Others discussed adapting in the
new environment with respect to open business (Ruiz et al., 2017), finding opportunity
(Billore, 2011) and building risk-averse behavior preferences in the new business
environment (Batista and Umblijs, 2014).
The other theme in the input block, the external factors, includes several topics related to
the attachment factors related to the immigrant roots, such as cultural ties (Heberer, 2005;
Milanesi et al., 2016; Moyo, 2014; Wang and Warn, 2018), ethnicity ties (Cruz et al., 2018),
religious ties (Constantin et al., 2008; Gbadamosi, 2015) and family ties (Cruz et al., 2017;
Johnson et al., 2007; Pyong and Bozorgmehr, 2000). The external factors also include
external support factors, mainly in setting rules and policy (Collins, 2003; Rath and
Swagerman, 2016; van Delft et al., 2000; Yasmin and Koivurova, 2019) and financial support
(Godley, 1996). Barriers to starting a business, especially in relation to female ethnic
entrepreneurs, have also been discussed (Billore, 2011; Billore et al., 2010).
The process block represents topics on the processes of entrepreneurial activities ranging
from the establishment of the business to the growth and engagement of the business. A
total of 13 of these topics are used among the 61 papers in the process block, which
contributed to a 21% rate of convergence. Meanwhile, the rate of convergence for the output
block was 29% from 28 articles on the impacts or consequences of entrepreneurship.
In the process block, the theme of engagement mainly consists of topics on setting up
new businesses (Baycan-Levent et al., 2003; de Vries, 2014; Howell, 2019; Rahman, 2018),
business strategies (Kim, 2009; McPherson, 2016; Smart, 2003; Song, 2013), engagement
process in the new location (Li, 2007; Munkejord, 2017; Ojo, 2012) and historical overview
(Boyd, 2018; Clark and Drinkwater, 2010; Rath and Swagerman, 2016; Rogoff et al., 1998).
Several minor topics were also covered, such as experience collected by the entrepreneur in
the new environment (Phizacklea and Ram, 1995), succession strategies from one generation
to the next (Kim and Koo, 2017) and illegal issues that occur in certain contexts (Ojo et al.,
2013).
The two additional blocks, foundation improvement and contemporary issues,
contributed to an 11% and a 45% rate of convergence, respectively. The findings indicate
that topics discussed in the foundation improvement block are less diverse than those in the
contemporary issues block, although the number of papers on foundation improvement is
greater than on contemporary issues. It should be noted that, in most cases, the
contemporary issues also related to other themes, such as the engagement process (Lidola,
2014; Pio, 2007) and opportunities for and barriers to opening a business (Billore, 2011;
Billore et al., 2010).
JEEE Furthermore, the more converged discussions (smaller percentage rate) in one theme, the
more established the theme is. The lower convergence rate indicates the more converged
discussion topics in a theme. This could mean that generalization has been achieved at some
points or that there is no significant novelty to be explored further. Hence, less variation in
the topics within a theme indicates that studies have reached a certain level of agreement or
understanding about that topic.

Research methodology used in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship

This section elaborates various research methodologies that cover the research approaches
and settings used in ethnic entrepreneurship studies. Figure 6 presents a comparison of
various methodologies used in the reviewed articles. As depicted in Figure 6, the majority of
ethnic entrepreneurship studies involved empirical studies (141 articles) as opposed to
theoretical ones (42 articles). Among the empirical studies, the majority used a qualitative
approach such as interview and observation (77 articles), followed by secondary data (26
articles) and surveys (25 articles).
One of the most popular research methods in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship is the
interview method. As an example, a recent study by Ojo et al. (2013) used an interview
technique to gain insight into formal and informal entrepreneurial activities in the UK
among 30 Nigerian entrepreneurs in London. A study by Pio (2007) interviewed Indian
women entrepreneurs as ethnic minority immigrants in New Zealand to explore their mixed
experiences.
The next preferred method of study in ethnic entrepreneurship is the literature review
using systematic or bibliometric analysis. For example, Ganzaroli et al. (2013) systematically
reviewed 102 articles published since 1990 on the topic of social understanding of ethnic
entrepreneurship. Besides these two qualitative methods, other studies used a quantitative

Grounded theory 2

Case Study 9

Mixed methods (qualitative & quantitative) 13

Survey (Questionaires) 25

Figure 6. Secondary data analysis (quantitative) 26

Research methods Literature review, Systematic review &
42
used in the field of Bilbliometric analysis
ethnic Interview & Observation 66
entrepreneurship
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Countries of the studies

Ethnicities based on continent origin Developed Growing Not specified Total (%)

Asian ethnic groups 45 11 1 57 (31.15)

Table 7.
African ethnic groups 4 7 2 13 (7.1)
Research setting of European ethnic groups 12 1 13 (7.1)
ethnic American ethnic groups 12 1 13 (7.1)
entrepreneurship Various (multi-ethnic, not specified) 53 5 29 87 (47.55)
studies Total articles (%) 126 (68.85) 25 (13.66) 32 (17.49) 183 (100)
aspect in their research such as a survey method. Howell (2019) conducted a survey using A bibliometric
questionnaires, and Clark and Drinkwater (2010) used a census technique to obtain data analysis
from samples of anonymized records.

Research setting in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship

Comparisons of ethnicities studied in the reviewed articles are also provided based on the
research setting or the continent of origin. As presented in Table 7, the 183 studies were
carried out mostly in developed countries and did not specify the ethnicity studied
(equivalent to 68.85% and 47.55%, respectively). Only 25 articles (13.66%) specifically
addressed the context of developing countries, such as China (Heberer, 2005; Howell, 2019;
Yang and Wall, 2008), Thailand (Koning and Verver, 2013) and Pakistan (Jan, 2017), and 32
articles (17.49%) did not specify the context of a particular country because of the type of
study (e.g. literature review, conceptual paper, etc.). In addition, 52.45% of the 183 articles
involved particular ethnicities, with Asia representing the highest percentage (31.15%), as in
studies by Chand and Ghorbani (2011), Kim (2009), Koning and Verver (2013) and Yuniarto
(2016). The remaining ethnicities studied were from the Americas (e.g. Mexican and
Brazilian), Europe (e.g. Amish, Jewish and Polish) and Africa (e.g. Nigerian). Each continent
shared the same percentage (7.1%).
The findings confirm the common notions of ethnic entrepreneurship that are mostly
rooted in a classic theory of immigration, Lee’s theory of migration (Lee, 1966). This theory
of migration states that people tend to move from one region or country to another region or
country while expecting that the new place will bring newer opportunities for them to live a
better life. Using this argument, economists in the 1980s began to formulate push–pull
factors for immigration, and economic factors became one of the main factors influencing
immigration decisions (Hare, 1999). This is reflected in the results of the present study; most
studies were conducted in developed countries, for example, Canada, the USA, the United
Kingdom and other European countries, whereas the ethnicities studied were mostly from
Asia, such as China, Korea, Pakistan and Indonesia, and Africa, for instance, Nigeria and
Algeria. Big cities in developed countries (e.g. Amsterdam, Berlin, etc.) usually have urban
policies and/or “best practices” that stimulate entrepreneurial activity among ethnic
minorities living in the city (van Delft et al., 2000). Various assistance programs provided by
governments in developed countries through the implementation of successful urban
policies could be another reason that immigrants more often choose to move to developed
countries than to developing ones and to open businesses there.

Concluding remarks and future research agenda

This study reviewed the existing literature in the field of ethnic entrepreneurship by
examining 183 articles with the aim of identifying and reviewing the definitions, theories/
perspectives, research themes, research methodologies and research settings used. The
bibliometric analysis has produced five conclusions and suggestions for future research.
First, regarding the definitions of ethnic entrepreneurship, ethnic entrepreneurship is
usually associated with immigrant entrepreneurship and defined as a group of people who
are tied to a common cultural heritage or origin and who manage a business as owners or
operators. The definition of ethnic entrepreneurship can also be adjusted to the context of
research, for instance, by introducing diversity, gender and heredity as terms.
Second, this study categorized theories and perspectives used in the current literature
into three aspects, namely, socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-cultural economic. The
combination of these three aspects to understand ethnic entrepreneurship addressing certain
research themes is still relevant for future research agendas. Third, regarding the research
JEEE themes, this study classified six research themes grouped into five blocks (input, process,
output, foundation improvement and contemporary issues). Each block has a different rate
of convergence that reflects the degree of diverse topics in the studies of ethnic
entrepreneurship. The higher rates of convergence lead to exploratory research, whereas the
lower rates of convergence lead to exploitative research. The study found that the topics on
contemporary issues (i.e. gender studies), individual factors, entrepreneurship impacts and
specifically non-economic impacts still have potential for future exploratory studies.
Fourth, in terms of research methodology, the majority of studies in ethnic
entrepreneurship were mainly empirical and qualitative in nature. Future research focusing
on a specific theme using an appropriate research methodology would be a worthwhile
exercise. For instance, a multiple-case study or grounded theory could be used for
exploratory research to study non-economic impact and gender issues, whereas a
quantitative approach such as a survey method could be used to study business
engagement and establishment among ethnic entrepreneurs. Moreover, mixed methods are
arguably becoming more relevant in providing good research on ethnic entrepreneurship.
Fifth, the study found that the majority of ethnic entrepreneurship studies are still
conducted in the developed country context with Asian ethnic groups, especially Chinese, as
the main study subjects. The Chinese ethnic group is undoubtedly in a strong position to
represent the practices of ethnic entrepreneurship in developed and developing countries.
This study also found that members of ethnic groups who become entrepreneurs in their
host country mostly originated from the same Asian countries (for example, Korea, Lebanon
and Indonesia). There are several ethnic groups from Africa, Europe and America, but they
are not as varied as ethnic groups from Asian countries. This calls for future research to
study non-Chinese ethnic groups in more detail; for example, the characteristics of each
ethnicity in terms of how they decide to locate and open businesses in particular countries.
Furthermore, studies in the setting of under-researched developing countries, such as Africa,
are also worth considering. For instance, as limited access to finance is often a hurdle for
ethnic entrepreneurs in starting and maintaining businesses in host countries, examining
informal financial support stemming from local practices such as stokvels or njangis in
Cameroon (Tengeh and Nkem, 2017) is worth pursuing. In addition, investigating the
entrepreneurial dynamics of ethnic entrepreneurs in the context of economic and structural
inequalities, where local populations are marginalized and thus create hostile environments
for ethnic/immigrant entrepreneurs such as that happened in South Africa (Griffin-EL and
Olabisi, 2018), offers an interesting and valuable research avenue. The investigation of
ethnic entrepreneurship in these contexts will enhance the understanding of ethnic
entrepreneurship practices in emerging countries, which may be different to those in
developed countries because of differences in institutional environments, and thus will
contribute to the development of theories in the ethnic entrepreneurship field.
Based on the findings, several research questions are proposed for future studies. For
example, “How does the gender of ethnic entrepreneurs contribute to both economic and
non-economic impact?” This question specifically intends to investigate the impact of
gender profiles to both economic and non-economic performance in the SME’s business.
Another potential question is, “What factors affect the decision to open a business among
different groups of ethnicities (e.g. Chinese entrepreneurs and non-Chinese ones)?” As noted
previously, Chinese entrepreneurs are dominant in the findings of the present study. Given
that, similarities or differences in patterns can be identified that may be the result of
individual (internal) or external factors or interactions with other ethnicities. A comparison
study would be interesting.
 This study has several limitations. First, as it only uses GS as the electronic database, some A bibliometric
studies that are not part of the GS database might not be included. Second, the findings indicate analysis
that other types of publications account for a significant number of citations in the ethnic
entrepreneurship literature on growing markets. As this study only includes peer-reviewed
articles, the other types of publications are not included. Therefore, this study may lack relevant
insights into the ethnic entrepreneurship literature on growing markets. As a consequence of
these limitations, future systematic reviews should include other databases and other types of
publications to enlarge the scope and depth of the literature reviewed. The use of systematic
analysis is also recommended to provide a different perspective. Third, as the study is theoretical
in nature, it may have limited impact on practice. However, as a basis for future research, it may
have practical implications as empirical evidence that could be used in several ways, including as
a springboard to formulate intervention initiatives aimed at promoting engagement and the
development of entrepreneurship in specific ethnic groups and as a measure of both the economic
and non-economic impact of ethnic entrepreneurship.

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JEEE Appendix 1
Tier of journal No. of articles
Other Q1 journals
Other Q2 journals
Other Q3 journals
Other Q4 journals
Journals without rank
Table A1.
List of journals based
on tier
Details of journals
16 American Sociological Review; Environment and Planning C:
Government and Policy; Gender, Work and Organization;
Geograpgy Compass; International Migration; International
Migration and Integration; Journal of Contemporary History;
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Organization Studies;
Regional Studies; Social Problems Sociological Perpectives; Space
and Polity; The Sociological Review; Tourism Geographies.
19 Economic Development Quarterly; Entrepreneurship Research
Journal; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion An International Journal;
Immigration and Work; International Area Review; International
Entrepreneurship Management Journal; International Journal of
Sociology and Social Policy; Journal of African Business;Journal of
Critical Realism; Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and
Places in the Global Economy; Journal of Research in Marketing
and Entrepreneurship; Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development; Journal of South Asian Development; Korea Journal;
Pacific Affairs; The Canadian Geographer; The Journal of
Entrepreneurship; Thunderbird International Business Review;
Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies
10 Community Development; Diaspora Studies; Ethnic
Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process; Global Business and
Economics Review; Great Plains Quarterly; Int. J. Entrepreneurship
and Innovation Management; International Journal of Social
Economics; Management and Marketing; Problems of Economic
Transition; Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal
1 Social and Economic Studies
24 Business Management Review;Espace, populations, societes; Iliria
International Review; International Business and Economics
Research Journal; International Journal of Arts and Sciences;
International Journal of Business Anthropology; International
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education; Journal of Asia
Entrepreneurship And Sustainability; Journal of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (2); Journal of Small Business and
Entrepreneurship (2); Makara Hubs-Asia; National Journal of
Sociology; New England Journal of Entrepreneurship; New Zealand
Journal of Asian Studies (2); Problemy Zarzadzania; Race, gender
and Class; Review of International Business; Small Enterprise
Research; Society and Business Review; The China Quarterly; The
Review of Korean Studies
No. Citation Title Author(s) (year) Journal (tier) Theories and approaches used

1 755 Revisiting Ethnic Zhou (2004) International Migration Middleman minorities

Entrepreneurship:
Convergencies, Controvercies,
and Conceptual Advancements
2 338 Immigrant Entrepreneurship:
Effects of Ethnic Market Size
and Isolated Labor Pool
3 214 Motivations and Performance
Conditions for Ethnic
Entrepreneurship
4 209 Diversity in Entrepreneurship.
Ethnic and Female Roles in
Urban Economic Life
5 156 Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship
in America: Toward an
Explanation of Racial and
Ethnic Group Variations in Self-
Employment
6 144 The Other Side of Ethnic
Entrepreneurship: A Dialogue
with Waldinger, Aldrich, Ward,
and Associates
7 136 National Culture, Networks and
Ethnic Entrepreneurship: A
Comparison of the Indian and
Chinese Immigrant in the US
8 129 Chinese Investment and
Business in Canada: Ethnic
Entrepreneurship Reconsidered
9 114 What Colour ‘Success’?
Distorting Value in Studies of
Ethnic Entrepreneurship
Evans (1989)
Masurel et al. (2002)
Baycan-Levent et al. (2003)
Butler and Herring (1991)
Bonacich (1973)
Chand and Ghorbani (2011)
Li (1993)
Werbner (1999)
Review (Q1)
American Sociological Review
(Q1)
Growth and Change (Q3)
International Journal of Social
Economics (Q3)
Sociological Perspectives (Q1)
International Migration
Review (Q1)
International Business Review
(Q1)
Pacific Affairs (Q2)
The Sociological Review (Q1)
perspective, ethnic enclaves Appendix 2
perspective
Organizational ecology
Culturalis approach
Female entrepreneurship/
gender-based differences
Middleman minorities
perspective, ethnic enclaves
perspective, social learning
theory
Immigration laws (push and
pull laws of migration)
Culturalist approach, Social
capital theory
Culturalist approach, Chinese
entrepreneurship/
entrepreneurial familism
Ethnic enclave perspective,
Bootstrap capitalism
(continued)

ethnic
entrepreneurship
used in the field of
List of articles with
A bibliometric

based on the theories

50 or more citations
Table A2.
analysis
 JEEE

Table A2.
No. Citation Title Author(s) (year) Journal (tier) Theories and approaches used

10 95 Noneconomic Effects of Ethnic
Entrepreneurship: A Focused
Look at the Chinese and Korean
Enclave Economies in Los
Angeles
11 93 Cultural Resources and Ethnic
Entrepreneurship: A Case Study
of the Portuguese Real Estate
Industry in Toronto
12 85 Recent Trends in Minority
Ethnic Entrepreneurship in
Britain
13 82 Ethnic Diversity,
Entrepreneurship and
Competitiveness in a Global City
14 79 Bootstrap Capitalism and the
Culture Industries: A Critique of
Invidious Compassions in the
Study of Ethnic
Entrepreneurship
15 77 Ethnic Entrepreneurship:
Studying Chinese and Indian
Students in the United States
16 76 Ethnic Entrepreneurship in
Comparative Perspective
17 68 International Ethnic
Entrepreneurship: Antecedents,
Outcomes and Environmental
Context
Zhou and Cho (2010)
Teixeira (1998)
Clark and Drinkwater (2010)
Smallbone et al. (2010)
Basu and Werbner (2001)
Li (2007)
Phizacklea and Ram (1995)
Ilhan-Nas et al. (2011)
Thunderbird International
Business Review (Q2)
The Canadian Geographer
(Q2)
International Small Business
Journal (Q1)
International Small Business
Journal (Q1)
Ethnic and Racial Studies (Q1)
Journal of Developmental
Entrepreneurship (Q4)
International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behavior and
Research (Q1)
International Business Review
(Q1)
Ethnic enclave perspective,
Mixed embeddedness
Culturalist approach,
Interactive model of ethnic
business development
Self-employment
Ethnic diversity: diversity
competitiveness link
Cultural approach, Bootstrap
capitalism
Cultural approach
Interactive model of ethnic
business development
Immigration laws (push and
pull laws of migration)
(continued)
No. Citation Title Author(s) (year) Journal (tier) Theories and approaches used

18 67 Explaining Ethnic Ibrahim and Galt (2011) International Business Review Cultural approach, Orthodox
Entrepreneurship: An (Q1) economic approach/old
Evolutionary Economics institutional economic
Approach
19 67 In Search of Ethnic van Delft et al. (2000) Environment and Planning C: Self-employment
Entrepreneurship Opportunities Government and Policy (Q1)
in the City: A Comparative
Study
20 64 Ethnic Tourism and Yang and Wall (2008) Tourism Geographies (Q1) Ethnic tourism theory
Entrepreneurship:
Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China
21 62 Ethnic Entrepreneurship: The Assudani (2009) Journal of Small Business and Middleman minorities
Distinct Roles of Ties Entrepreneurship perspective, Ethnic enclave
perspective, social capital,
(Mixed) Embeddedness
22 60 Ethnic Entrepreneurship Pio (2007) Gender, Work and Mixed embeddedness, female
Among Indian Women in New Organization (Q1) entrepreneurship/gender-
Zealand: A Bittersweet Process based differences
23 57 Ethnic minority businesses and Piperopoulos (2010) Journal of Small Business and Culturalist approach, blocked
immigrant entrepreneurship in Enterprise Development (Q2) mobility
Greece
24 56 Gender differences in ethnic Baycan-Levent et al. (2006) International Journal of Female entrepreneurship/
entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship and gender-based differences
Innovation Management (Q3)
25 54 Unpacking Regional Ethnicity Tsui-auch (2005) Organization Studies (Q1) Culturalist approach,
and the Strength of Ties in Middleman minorities
Shaping Ethnic perspective, Interactionist
Entrepreneurship perspective

Note: A total of 25 selected articles from 108 reviewed articles that have more than 50 citations
A bibliometric

Table A2.
analysis
JEEE About the authors
Nurul Indarti is an Associate Professor from the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics
and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She holds a PhD degree from the Faculty of
Economics and Business, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Naya Hapsari is a junior lecturer from the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and
Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She holds a Master of Science degree from the
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Andy Susilo Lukito-Budi is a lecturer from Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia. Currently
he is enrolled as a Doctorate student at the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and
Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. Andy Susilo Lukito-Budi is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: jkbudi@yahoo.com
Risa Virgosita is a lecturer from the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and
Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She holds a PhD degree from the School of Business,
University of Agder, Norway.

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